11/12/2012

With little pushback from law enforcement within its borders the United States increasingly
is serving as a global distribution hub for the Mexican drug cartels.

Last week police in Melbourne, Australia busted two suspects including a reputed "high ranking member of the Comanchero Motorcycle Club" for their alleged roles in receiving cocaine shipments from an unidentified Mexican drug cartel in the United States as reported by Andrew O'Reilly for Fox News: "while it is unclear which cartel the outlaw motorcycle club members were working with, it is well known that Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán's Sinaloa cartel has a major stake in Australia's burgeoning cocaine market."

Earlier this month Quebec police charged more than 100 individuals for their alleged
roles in a drug conspiracy which used a trucking firm to bring cocaine
into Canada from the United States, and the arrested include those with
suspected ties to the Italian Mafia, the Irish West End Gang and Hells
Angels motorcycle club as reported by The Canadian Press.

The 'Ndrangheta or Calabrian Mafia also has developled a partnership
with the Mexican cartels in the United States for moving cocaine from
New York City into Italy. Nicola Gratteri, a top anti-Mafia prosecutor
in Italy warns that "this mafia is quickly spreading in the United
States, particularly in Florida and New York" as reported by Beatrice Borromeo for The Daily Beast:
"Gratteri's latest operations . . . uncovered a new route in the
mafia's international drug trade, centered in New York City, where the
crime syndicates can secure easy access to cocaine shipped in by
Mexican cartels."

The success of the Mexican cartels in building their massive drug
distribution and marketing networks across the county is a reflection of
the U.S. government's intelligence and operational failure in the war
on drugs, said Fulton T. Armstrong, a former national intelligence
officer for Latin America and ex-CIA officer. "We pretend that the
cartels don't have an infrastructure in the U.S.,"
said Armstrong, also a former staff member of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee and now a senior fellow at American University's
Center for Latin American and Latino Studies. "But you don't do a
$20 billion a year business . . . with ad-hoc, part-time
volunteers. You use an established infrastructure to support the
markets. How come we're not attacking that infrastructure?"

11/02/2012

Quebec police have busted more than 100 individuals for their alleged roles in a drug conspiracy which used a trucking firm to bring cocaine into Canada from the United States, and the arrested include those with suspected ties to the Italian Mafia, the Irish West End Gang and Hells Angels motorcycle club as reported by The Canadian Press:

Police said the organization, which had been under investigation for
about six months, managed to rake in an estimated $50 million in that
short time. * * * The group allegedly used a middleman to co-operate with Mexican drug
cartels and appeared to have the capacity to import and distribute about
75 kilograms of cocaine per week.

07/28/2010

*** Interpol is hunting for fugitive David MacDonald Carrol, a reputed member of the Hells Angels Nomads chapter in Quebec, Canada, who is "alleged to have been involved in the murder of 13 people and the attempted murder of two others."

*** Reputed West End Gang leader Gerald Matticks may soon be released from prison after serving eight years on "several charges related to multimillion-dollar drug smuggling conspiracies carried out through the Port of Montreal": "Investigators later learned Matticks was using his influence at the port to help the Hells Angels get hundreds of kilograms of cocaine through."

Braun . . . orchestrated the illegal importation of 110 tons of pot dating back to at least November 2007, according to court papers . . . . The contraband was concealed in vehicles entering New York from Canada through the Akwesasne Native American reservation in upstate Franklin County. Court records do not say whether anyone on the reservation has been criminally charged. Prosecutors said the weekly shipments of pot were delivered to "stash houses" on Staten Island and Queens.

Another four individuals were being pursued by police, including the purported head of the scheme, Hells Angels member Normand Marvin Ouimet. According to police, Mr. Ouimet had been trying to take control of masonry companies by using threats, intimidation and extortion. The plan, police say, was to create a consortium of masonry companies as part of a conspiracy to corner the market and help the biker gang launder drug money through false consulting contracts for construction projects. Police seized more than $9-million in financial assets, including homes, bank accounts and building projects, as part of an investigation that began in 2007. Among the suspects are a union representative, businessmen and building contractors. Accountants and real-estate agents were part of another scheme, police say, to use land development projects to launder dirty money as part of a web of illegal activities plotted by the biker gang. Portfolio managers allegedly were used to funnel the money to overseas bank accounts. A total of 147 charges have been laid against the individuals. Sûreté du Québec Inspector Michel Forget said it was the biggest money-laundering operation ever encountered by the police, and that there was more to come.

Paul Cherry for The Montreal Gazette reports that "Ouimet was already one of the 10 most wanted men in the province, because of murder and drug trafficking charges produced in April in Operation SharQc." Among those arrested today are:

Guy Dufour, 42, a representative with the Quebec Federation of Labour’s construction wing; real estate agent Roberto Amato, a 55-year-old convicted drug trafficker; and Jerry Purdy, 60, of Blainville, who is alleged to have ties to the West End Gang.

10/16/2009

Gerald Matticks, the reputed leader of the West End Gang, yesterday was denied parole "for a second time on the 12-year sentence he received in 2002 for helping the Hells Angels smuggle large shipments of cocaine through the Port of Montreal" as reported by Paul Cherry for the Gazette:

Unlike during his first hearing before the National Parole Board, in Oct. 2007, he readily admitted he wielded considerable influence at the port before his arrest in 2001. Matticks worked at the port briefly in the 1970's and other members of his family have held jobs there as well. "I was the big guy in there. Without me it wouldn't have happened. I was the key man. I could get the job done," Matticks told the three parole board members who ultimately denied his release Thursday.

According to the National Parole Board "Matticks continues to deny that the notorious West End Gang even exists, let alone that he's a top leader with the gang" as reported by CTV Montreal.

Police said Mr. Gallant was a contract killer at the centre of a shifting roster of gangsters accused of carrying out 28 homicides and 13 attempted murders over three decades, peaking with Quebec's biker war from 1994 to 2002. Ten suspects were rounded up yesterday, based on evidence Mr. Gallant provided after turning informant. An 11th person facing a murder charge remained at large. * * * From his unassuming redoubt near Quebec City, Mr. Gallant was in the middle of a gang war that eventually killed 160 people, police said. He and the 11 suspects targeted bikers, street gangsters and Italian mobsters with little regard for allegiance. They also had little regard for the innocent. At least one of the dead and several of the wounded were described by police as bystanders or victims of mistaken identity. * * * Some arrested suspects, such as Frédéric Faucher, a former leader of the Rock Machine, and Raymond Desfosses, an alleged high-ranking member of the West End Gang, are alleged to have ordered hits. One of the more prominent dead was Paul Cotroni, the son of Montreal mob boss Frank Cotroni, who died in 1998.

Another Rock Machine, Marcel Demers, was arrested and charged with 12 murders and four attempted murders. Among other major players arrested by police is Raymond Bouchard, an associate of Desfosses. He is charged with 16 of the murders and six of the attempted murders.